Newbie again... aperture taking all space on macbook pro

[pm79]

Hello everybody.

I'm a newbie on this forum. I have tried to search for the answer on other forums but couldn't get a proper reply.

I'm a keen photographer (a hobby) and edit my photos using aperture on my 2009 model MBP. Now the hard disk of MBP is running out and it's become slow. I'm looking for some way of expanding storage mainly for my photos. But my main requirement is that I should be able to do editing on those photographs with aperture.

Now my choices are:
1) Portable hard disk
2) NAS
3) increasing hard disk of MBP

I have been reading about this and read somewhere that aperture doesn't work very well with photos stored on NAS and may also have some problems with portable hard disk. Now i'm not too sure about that as it wasn't very clear. More I'm reading about this -more I'm getting confused.

Could somobody who's got experience of aperture give me some suggestions and bring me out of my misery...please

 

[mikepro]

Because of the file and database structure, I think Apple recommends not storing the library on a NAS, but on a native formatted Apple volume. But, you can locate the actual PICTURES and versions on a NAS, but keep the database library on your macbook. This is the referenced files approach. Google it for more information.

Other options you may wish to consider:

Just relocate some of your older files to an external drive. Aperture makes it easy to split libraries and work with multiple libraries.

Do you take a lot of video? These take up a ton of space. You could just relocate those.

Finally, upgrading the hard drive in a mac is quite easy. Lots of info on how to do this. Basically, get the new hard drive (1 TB recommended) and then you have a couple of options. If you have a SATA to USB adapter, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone your old drive onto the new one. Then, just install it and you are done. Or, install it and restore your system from Time Machine. I think cloning is easier.

If you want to be really advanced you can take out your DVD drive and put a second drive in there for maximum storage space.

 

[pm79]

Because of the file and database structure, I think Apple recommends not storing the library on a NAS, but on a native formatted Apple volume. But, you can locate the actual PICTURES and versions on a NAS, but keep the database library on your macbook. This is the referenced files approach. Google it for more information.

Other options you may wish to consider:

Just relocate some of your older files to an external drive. Aperture makes it easy to split libraries and work with multiple libraries.

Do you take a lot of video? These take up a ton of space. You could just relocate those.

Finally, upgrading the hard drive in a mac is quite easy. Lots of info on how to do this. Basically, get the new hard drive (1 TB recommended) and then you have a couple of options. If you have a SATA to USB adapter, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone your old drive onto the new one. Then, just install it and you are done. Or, install it and restore your system from Time Machine. I think cloning is easier.

If you want to be really advanced you can take out your DVD drive and put a second drive in there for maximum storage space.

THanks a lot for reply. It was really helpful. I think I'm going to go for last 2 options of increasing my internal hard drive - by putting a bigger hard drive and changing he dvd drive to another hard drive. I was looking at the internal hard drives. Can you recommend any particular ones. there's one I have looked at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Int...LTBC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348425541&sr=8-2 hows this one? I also read that performance wise SSD's are better.

 

[mikepro]

THanks a lot for reply. It was really helpful. I think I'm going to go for last 2 options of increasing my internal hard drive - by putting a bigger hard drive and changing he dvd drive to another hard drive. I was looking at the internal hard drives. Can you recommend any particular ones. there's one I have looked at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Int...LTBC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348425541&sr=8-2 hows this one? I also read that performance wise SSD's are better.

If you go the 2 hard drive route I definitely recommend having an SSD as the boot volume/program volume, and then a larger volume for all of your media files. Lots of people do this, again do a search for experiences. I have a 256GB Crucial M4 in my main bay, and a regular drive in the optical bay.

The only thing to keep in mind, is that drives come in different heights, like 9.5mm, 12.5, etc. The hard drive bay can pretty much take any height, but the optical bay is usually limited to 9.5mm. Also, to mount a drive in the optical bay, you need an Optibay or a cheap Chinese DVD mounting adapter bracket. Again, this is discussed tons here, so search on optibay or adding second drive.

 

[pm79]

If you go the 2 hard drive route I definitely recommend having an SSD as the boot volume/program volume, and then a larger volume for all of your media files. Lots of people do this, again do a search for experiences. I have a 256GB Crucial M4 in my main bay, and a regular drive in the optical bay.

The only thing to keep in mind, is that drives come in different heights, like 9.5mm, 12.5, etc. The hard drive bay can pretty much take any height, but the optical bay is usually limited to 9.5mm. Also, to mount a drive in the optical bay, you need an Optibay or a cheap Chinese DVD mounting adapter bracket. Again, this is discussed tons here, so search on optibay or adding second drive.

Thanks again for this info. It's really helped me.

I've done bit of research now and have decided on getting 512 SSD for main bay and 1TB HDD for optibay (or should it be SSD in optibay and HDD in main bay??). I have got 13'' mid-2009 MBP.

Is it true SATA speed in earlier MBPs is only 4Gb/s and not 6Gb/s? So will I be wasting money by getting a 6Gb/s SSD like samsung 830/crucial M4/OCZ vertex 4?

Apart from optibay, SSD, HDD do I need anything else for installation?

I'm sorry for all these questions again. As i'm new to all these and only installation I have ever done is updating RAM of this MBP from 4GB to 8GB.

 

[mikepro]

Thanks again for this info. It's really helped me.

I've done bit of research now and have decided on getting 512 SSD for main bay and 1TB HDD for optibay (or should it be SSD in optibay and HDD in main bay??). I have got 13'' mid-2009 MBP.

It probably doesn't matter on your model, but I think you are better off with the SSD in the main bay. That's how I did mine. I want my boot drive in there so if I ever want to put the DVD drive back in, I can do it and not mess with my boot drive.

Is it true SATA speed in earlier MBPs is only 4Gb/s and not 6Gb/s? So will I be wasting money by getting a 6Gb/s SSD like samsung 830/crucial M4/OCZ vertex 4?

You don't have the latest chipset which supports SATAIII, and can give a max of 6GB/s. You have SataII, which is max of 3GB/s. You aren't "wasting" your money getting a drive that can run faster than your chipset will support. It is backwards compatible. In fact, I think it's wasting your money not getting a latest SATAIII drive, as your next machine will support it. Plus, most drives are SATAIII now, and there is very little price difference.

Apart from optibay, SSD, HDD do I need anything else for installation?

Well, a SATA to USB data transfer cable makes the process easier. You can plug your SSD into it and connect it via USB, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current boot drive to your new drive. Makes the process simpler if you don't want to do a fresh install. Crucial sells a kit with this cable for about an extra $10. Or, you can pick a generic one up.

I'm sorry for all these questions again. As i'm new to all these and only installation I have ever done is updating RAM of this MBP from 4GB to 8GB.

 

[pm79]

Well, a SATA to USB data transfer cable makes the process easier. You can plug your SSD into it and connect it via USB, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current boot drive to your new drive. Makes the process simpler if you don't want to do a fresh install. Crucial sells a kit with this cable for about an extra $10. Or, you can pick a generic one up.

.

Is this ok? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer-SATA...DK54/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1348583614&sr=8-6

And is this ok for optibay?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-Drive...U72Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348583772&sr=8-1

I read about SSDs here and there was a direct comparison between samsung, OCZ, Crucial SSDs and reviewer recommended the OCZ mainly because of its speed. But most of the people recommends samsungs 830 or Crucial M4. Do you know which one will be more reliable and better in quality?

 

[mikepro]

Those both look fine.


Don't get too caught up in the speed comparisons. These are all FAST, and you can't even reach their full potential with your SATA II speeds.

Samsung and Crucial are outstanding drives, and are usually one of the top drives recommended for a Mac. I have the crucial m4. Chose it because it was cheaper than the Samsung, and they make firmware update procedure that works on a Mac. Not sure if Samsung does.

 

[pm79]

Those both look fine.


Don't get too caught up in the speed comparisons. These are all FAST, and you can't even reach their full potential with your SATA II speeds.

Samsung and Crucial are outstanding drives, and are usually one of the top drives recommended for a Mac. I have the crucial m4. Chose it because it was cheaper than the Samsung, and they make firmware update procedure that works on a Mac. Not sure if Samsung does.

Thanks Mike again. you are a star.

I have finally ordered for samsung 830 512gb and samsung M8 1tb for optibay from amazon... I guess you can't ungrade samsung's firmware with mac, so should I connect ssd to my PC with sata to usb cable to check for any upgrade?

Everybody here talks about clean install.. Is it easy to do? I've got Lion 10.7.4 installed on my MBP. Is there any easy step by step guide to do that? Thanks again for all your help. Really appreciate it.